One and a Half Lives
by JCVwriting
Summary: Kim dies, and comes back to earth as Pucca, having the objective to make 100,000 souls happy in order to be allowed into Heaven. The goal is proven easy until she comes across reluctant-lover, Garu. Will she ever be allowed into Heaven? If she does...well...will Garu ever love anyone again, knowing that everything he loves is always taken away in the end? -Jovial Souls-


Kim was panting frantically as she hurried across the crosswalk. The old woman felt her wrinkly face heat up and she frowned.

_'Really getting tired of this...'_

A car honked.

Kim whipped to face the blue vehicle.

"Quit it!" She screeched in her hoarse, old voice, "Why don't you just help me get across this stupid road?!"

The man in the car put his hands up in innocence and yelled back to her, "Calm down, Grandma! You don't want to get a heart attack!"

The light went yellow. She has been walking all throughout the green light, when she wasn't supposed to.

Kim scrunched her face into an angry smirk.

_'Let those mainstream hooligans wait.'_

She continued to the individual honking of the long line of cars waiting for her to cross.

A woman yelled, "Help her!"

Another woman, "Why don't _you_?!"

The old woman heard a car door slam and turned her head toward the line of cars. She was right in the middle of the crosswalk.

"Let me help you, ma'am..." A man, possibly frustrated in the inside, smiled warmly at her.

She smiled toothlessly at him.

"Ooh, why thank you, young man!" She said to him in that stereo-typical, sweet, old lady voice.

His hand lightly cupped her back as he coached her along to the other side of the street.

Kim smiled again, "Thank you! I will be forever grateful for your existance!"

The man awkwardly smiled and smoothed his black hair, "Ahh...You're welcome. Have a good day, now." He set off for his car, just as the light went green.

"At least someone cares about me..." She muttered as she walked down the sidewalk.

_'Or he just wanted me to get off the street.' _ Her thoughts paused.

_'Kill me for all I care...'_

_000000000000_

Kim returned to her retirement home in the evening. Her caretakers rushed over to the old woman.

"Miss Kim! Don't sneak out like that! We got worried!" A very young woman wearing a long, black braid rubbed the old woman's back lightly as a greeting.

Kim wore a neutral face which made the caretaker feel awkward.

"Umm...Uh...Here, sit down. Would you like to eat? Do you want to go to your room?"

"Yes. Both, please." She said in her normal voice, not trying to sound sweet at all. Hoarse. Stern and sharp.

The caretaker wore a name plate engraved with her name, 'Ching'.

Ching opened Kim's door. "Go on in..."

She helped the old woman get settled into bed. "I'll get you some dinner, Miss Kim." And the young girl hurried out of the door, closing it lightly.

Kim sighed. 80 years of utter misery. When will it end? Her heart was still pounding.

She sneaked out because she wanted to kill herself. How she even managed to go without being noticed was a mystery, though.

The only reason she came back in the first place was because she wanted to have a proper burial and die more peacefully. Then perhaps her soul will have a more peaceful life. A better one. One that she didn't have.

Kim sighed with a sound. The door clicked open and Ching came in carrying a bowl of mushy stuff and a bottle of water. It was always mushy stuff. She could barely taste it, but it was better than nothing.

"Do you need assistance?" The woman asked sweetly.

"Uh, no. No, thank you." Although Kim was cold at heart, she knew manners and she will use them. Along with a lot of other things...Whether it was bad or not.

"Okay, call if you need anything." With a bow to respect her elder, Ching left with a smile.

_'That girl is always smiling. What does she have to smile about all the time?...She's a good person, though...'_

_000000000000000_

"Miss Kim?" Ching hurriedly teared through the door, her heart racing, ears ringing from the unmoving sound of the monitor.

"Miss Kim!" She rushed to the pale body and tears surged from her eyes.

Other workers started streaming in, not knowing what to do but wait for the ambulance.

Ching carefully picked Kim's frail hand, rubbing her thumb across the back of the loose skin.

_'She's already gone...I know it...'_

And she was right.

000000000000000000000

"Sorry, can't let you in. I'll just give you a ticket for your way down there."

"No! You can't!" Kim sneered at the golden gate keeper.

"Abdul. Please." Boomed a loud, but gentle voice. It was angelic, and soothed Kim's heart. "Let her in. Immediately to me."

Abdul the gate keeper gave Kim a ticket and the doors silently opened.

A light washed over her and when she opened her eyes, what stand before her was a beautiful garden. So fresh, so young. Beneath a flourishing apple tree, a plump, red apple sitting among the grass had a single bite. The sky, it was not blue, but a hazy, milky white.

"Kim. I feel your pain. I am feeling thousands upon thousands of emotions right now. I know who they belong to. Each and every one of them. That's why I'm giving you a chance."

Kim stood frail in the garden, and a man strode in front of her. _'Should I be scared?' _She could hear her thoughts echo from the leaves of the greenery.

This man, He was human. But she could feel an un-earthly power radiating from Him. It was amazing. Brown hair turned white, and a flowing robe adorned Him.

"Don't be scared, Kim." His voice was entwined with trillions of others, but somehow transformed into one voice that was heard all at once in each word He spoke.

"Like I said, I shall give you a chance. May you float down to earth as a wandering soul or do the earth some good?"

"Uhmm..." Her raspy voice trembled.

"If you want to live in my Heaven, you will have to pay your debt to the world."

"I...I don't...What do I have to do?" The expression on Kim's lined face was dumbfounded.

"100,000 lives. You will have to make them happy, content. Even for just a day. It will mean the world to them. Not nearly the amount that this earth below us holds, but will soothe their suffering souls from passing on to the next life."

"How am I gonna do that? That's impossible!" Kim shook her head in disbelief.

"You're right, it is. That's why I will give you a body that has been dormant for countless years. Made new from time."

Kim sighed. _'Make 100,000 lives happy? I have never made anyone happy in my entire life.'_

"You have potential, Kim."

She squeezed her eyes shut and her wrinkly mouth formed a straight line.

Hell or Heaven? Heaven or Hell?

Heaven.

"I'll do it."

"Very well then."

00000000000000000000000000000000000

Garu hasn't let tear drops fall like that ever since his parents left him in the forest.

He remembered it clearly. It replayed over and over in his dreams.

_His mother clutching him tight. _

_Everything was alright._

_"No need to fright, my little Garu... You'll be free soon.."_

_His strong father, his face still as a rock. A single tear, rolling down the cold stone._

_"I'm sorry...My son." His head lowered in shame and he let a black kitten jump out of his arms._

_Garu felt a familiar feeling on his cheek. A kiss, from his mother. Every night. And a gentle embrace from his big father._

_"My baby...Garu..I love you.. Remember that..."_

_Tear streaks across a beautiful face._

_Little arms wrap around a mother, not wanting to let go._

_Reluctantly, they break apart. And the parents walk away._

_"Mommy! Daddy! Wait! Where are you going?!" Garu cried._

_He ran for them, but his legs couldn't carry him any further._

_"My arms aren't strong enough to hold on." _

_His crying screeched across the forest. _

_Two figures, the ones he depended and owed his life to, they were getting away._

_The mother and the father never looked back._

_He was only three._

Now, the only one that connected him to his parents is gone. The little, black body curled up next to him. It was there, but the life...already long gone.

A note lay folded under his pillow. How it got there, he didn't know.

But it was obvious it was Tobe. Who else? Nobody.

And so the tiny grave sit there, next to the pond, a mound of dirt covering the box that held his dear partner.

He wiped his tears off with his black sleeve.

_'It's okay to cry. You are not weak. It shows you are human.'_

Garu sat down cross-legged by the grave and sighed.

_'Everything I love leaves me. Every time.'_

But Garu knew this day would come. So he felt foolish for not preparing himself for it.

He ran his fingers through his jet black hair. He stopped tying his hair and kept it short.

It was Abyo's idea. Plus, he wouldn't stop bothering him about it. Immature, he said. Made him look like a handsome girl, he said.

Garu felt a familiar voice calling out for him.

_'Now of all times...'_

He dashed into his home, washing his face with cold water so it wouldn't look like he was crying.

Abyo knocked on the door.

"Hey, Garu! What was that pile of dirt outside?"

Garu groaned and lunged into his bedroom to plop onto his pillow.

_'I'd better be off dead..'_

"Garu...? I saw you run into the house!"

He flipped to lie on his back and stared at the pale ceiling.

Garu sighed and after a heart beat, got up to open the door.

"Great! I have something to show you!" Abyo smiled mischievously.

Garu lifted an eyebrow.

"There's this hot new girl who works at the Goh-Rong!" He held a nervous smile.

'_Seriously?'_ He thought, and held the look for it.

"Oh, just come on!" Abyo grabbed Garu's wrist and led him into the restaurant.

He sighed, _'So what's so special about some new girl? He always makes a big fuss about women. Every woman he bothers me about is some ratchet skank.'_

"She's just so amazing that I had to let you see her!" Abyo stared at the kitchen doors, waiting for the waitress to come out.

_'I thought you said Ching was amazing. I thought you said Ring-Ring was amazing.'_ Garu resorted to holding a blank expression and sat at the back table, right next to the kitchen doors, coincidentally. He always sat there, anyway.

"I think she's gonna come out soon! I haven't really talked to her...Well I haven't talked to her before...but...She's just...Oh my God, she's just so beautiful!" Abyo squeezed Garu's upper arm in anticipation and excitement.

He rolled his eyes. _'It's probably some ratchet whore. Abyo would better be off with Ching. Well, too late now...She went off to Korea for a nursing degree or something. I don't know.'_

The kitchen doors opened. And Garu saw a flash of red, a dress. He lingered up from the slender legs to the toned stomach...To her angelic, pale, rosy cheeked face and pearly white smile. Sitting atop her seemingly fragile head were two simple, but elegantly tied odango-styled buns of hair. His eyes were lured to her face and looked at her body as a whole.

And...By God...She was beautiful.


End file.
